Sunday, June 15, 2008

Traitor or is this just a game?

Becky Hammon is a WNBA all-star who plays for the San Antonio Silver Stars. She recently generated great controversy when she decided to play for the Russian basketball team in this upcoming summer Olympics. She's been called a "traitor" by some of her colleagues, and lost favor with some of her fans. Becky states that it has been a life-long dream of hers to play in the Olympics, and that the American team had not asked her to try-out until after she had already signed up to play for the Russian team.

But is the criticism warranted? Is basketball nothing more than a game, and the critics mere over-zealots who need to calm down? Or is that sense of betrayal justified as she now becomes an athletics adversary to the American team, contributing to a potential American defeat, and subsequently to a Russian victory.

Yes, there is a cold-war overtone contributing to this story.

Two things that I know:

1) In some pics., Becky is pretty doggone good-looking2) I'm NOT watching the Olympics